Life is full of twists and turns, as the saying goes, but you never know when that life-altering event is coming at you. Some twists can turn out very fortunate, while others ... let's just say, there are others you wished you hadn't had to endure. Life can be a tough teacher, and the test tougher yet. Grown Fast and Hard - A contemporary short story set in the American West.

Jack is close to death and has a final message that he would like to deliver to his grandson, Ted.
It's a message about being a man, what it means, and how he himself took the hard road to learning that being a man isn't everything you are taught to believe it is.
Sometimes it's as simple as following a dream.

With the backpacking trip of a lifetime winding down, Ulrike finds herself desperate to avoid a return home to reality. Fate intervenes in the form of The Guide, who offers a package deal too good to be true: the chance to keep going, all the way to Everywhere. Ulrike's only concern is whether choosing a life on the trail will feel worth The Guide's commission to be paid in the end.

One winter's night two young girls venture out into a snowy neighborhood to play a game of hide and seek. Only one will return home safely. But which will it be? From the author of the bestselling novella The Sickroom comes a dark story about the weight of loss the importance of friendship and the courage of letting go.

Ozone depletion has made the sun deadly. Society has changed to adapt to the danger, living nocturnally. Amanda is a teenage girl dealing with life on this scorched world. She will soon be evacuated from her home and transported to a new country, where the days will be shorter. She's plagued by the horrid possibility that the only man she's ever loved will not be able to go with her.

Ever heard the legend of the Apple Tree Man? Leave him the last apple of the season or else next year's crop will go bad.
In this short story, the legend turns sinister when a group of friends get even with old man Hench. Years later, still full of regret over what transpired that night so long ago, the friendsbegin to die one by one. Coincidence? Or has the Apple Tree Man come to exact revenge?

After joining up with a menacing gang, the kid enters a surreal world where violence is celebrated and the skills passed down by his father are rewarded. But when he discovers a gut wrenching secret that threatens his younger sister, the resulting bloodshed and turmoil launches their lives down a treacherous path that cannot be undone.

Shelby, Randy, and John Mark have been best friends since grade school. The sons of close-knit families, they have been raised in small-town Georgia to be responsible, to revere God, and to love.
But as seniors in high school, they are accused of unspeakable crimes, persecuted by the justice system and abandoned by their community.
A coming of age story ... a tale of misandry run amok.

Maluco, a Brazilian in his late-twenties, works as staff of a hostel, thriving in the carefree party lifestyle and avoiding adulthood best he can. When Malbec, an Argentine bohemian with a guitar-case full of sincerity shows up, their worldviews collide, forcing each to reconsider his chosen path.

Sigvard, a young Swede, checks into a hostel in Rio de Janeiro. His fearless interest in the dark side of the culture- coupled with a propensity for blowing large wads of money carelessly- shocks and challenges the timid backpacker crowd. His downward spiral and unabashed indulgences trigger the imaginations of tale-telling travelers, giving birth to a legend that only grows as it is passed on.

As part of the white exodus into the suburbs, Benny Bartowski attempts to realize Reagan’s dream of the shining city of the hill, but a sudden and mysterious event forces him to question the values of Middle America.

Slocomb's Pond has a bad reputation. Some people have returned from it with tales of hideous creatures living beneath its placid waters. Others have not returned at all. This is the story of four boys who, one winter night, decide to tempt Fate at Slocomb's Pond, and who are caught most unaware when Fate takes them up on their wager.

Meet the Reynaldos, a simple country family living happily on their farm in 1940s American Philippines. Good luck has bounced their way and the family is climbing out of rural poverty to become successful entrepreneurs. Life is swell until the Japanese invade and make them servants in their own house.
Based on a true story.

Available for the first time complete in one volume. Previously published in two volumes as Daughter of Darkness and The Dadouchos. In 480 BC, fifteen-year-old Melaina's biggest worry, she thinks, is wishing to follow Artemis and remain virgin when her mother and grandfather want her to marry and became a priestess. But when the Persians invade, the gods themselves have plans for Melaina.